WCPA Mountains Network members Roger Good and Graeme Worboys prepared report for the Australian Government

News from Graeme Worboys:

Dear Colleagues,

The Caring for Our Australian Alps Catchments Summary Report links the management for natural catchment condition in the Australian Alps protected area to the protection and conservation of water yield, water flow regimes and water quality in the mountains and then to the national economy and to the well-being of Australians. It states that the effective management of the Alps protected areas is critical to the national economy. The approach to the presentation of the catchment condition information was inspired by the Parks Canada ecological integrity reporting approach. The report calls on Government to invest in 6 priority actions as key threat responses and adaptation responses to climate change

The Caring for our Australian Alps Catchments Summary Report was launched by the Australian Government Climate Change Minister Greg Combet two weeks ago (while I was travelling) and is now available for download @ 9mb....

http://www.climatechange.gov.au/en/publications/water/australian-alps.aspx

We hope that you find it interesting and useful,

Dr. Graeme Worboys

Note: See also the commentary by Peter Crabb "We need our Alps, so why aren’t we looking after them?"

The University of Central Asia (UCA) recently established the Mountain Societies Research Centre (MSRC), to generate, disseminate and promote the application of knowledge for the improvement of quality of life in the region.  

The MSRC, along with other thematic research centres currently being established, will be the academic core of UCA for the next five-year period during which UCA is developing its undergraduate and graduate-level academic programmes. UCA is seeking to fill the key positions of MSRC Director and Senior Research Scientist. For more information, please visit their website: http://msrc.ucentralasia.org/

Updated on Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 01:42PM by Linda McMillan

ALPES Magazine has written a beautiful, long and informative profile of our well-known Mountains Protected Areas Network member Barbara Erlinghaus of Switzerland.

Click to read more ...

Our WCPA Connectivity Conservation Deputy Chairman Olivier Chassot forwards news of an interesting connectivity event in Costa Rica in June 2011. Details are shown below in the beautifully-produced announcement poster.

Olivier points out that "This is the second year that we celebrate Environment Day with a connectivity research and management symposium at the national level (Costa Rica). This year's topic is "from mangrove to cloud forest: science for connectivity conservation."

We wish them great success!

Dr. Graeme Worboys has just forwarded some interesting updated information about the issue of cattle grazing on protected lands in Alpine National Park in Australia. See the full story on our Alerts page.